May 20, 2011

Blog sale: some rare teas and new green tea

(Item 5, 6 and some free samples are still available. )

The teas for this blog sale are not sold at lifeinteacup.com (most of them are not sold else where either). Some of them I've obtained small amounts for personal tasting. With all of them piling up, the small amount of each tea is probably still too much for me to drink myself :-p Some of them came to me for various reasons, as explained in this post.

I have small amount for each tea, and can make 3 sample sets for sale, with 8g of each tea in each set. Totally 40g per set, $8.

I've got them from a group purchase at a Chinese tea forum. The group purchase selects top notch tea and most unique teas each year. Last year I attended the group purchase, enjoyed most of the teas, but felt terribly guilty for not drinking up all the teas before the end of the year. I almost feel it's a sin to leave a great green tea unconsumed before the end of its peak time! So this year I'm determined to get rid of all of them with help of others.

The group purchase prices are very good. Many products are provided to the group purchase for advertising purpose. So some prices are significantly lower than market prices. The main purpose of this blog sale is to share these teas with green tea lovers. The sale prices aim at not losing money, but all the prices are surely better than what one can usually get from Chinese domestic market. But still, the teas are costly. So I would only recommend them to people who love green tea and want to experience more varieties.

A - Huo Shan Huang Ya, a green tea from Anhui. I don't remember if it's from the same producer of this Huo Shan Huang Ya I got last year. But anyway that's the style.

B - Meng Ding Gan Lu (蒙顶甘露), a green tea from Sichuan. The outlook is somewhat similar to Bi Luo Chun, but the taste is more vegetal.

D - Tong Cheng Small Orchid. This tea is similar to the one I blogged last year (which is available for sale at lifeinteacup.com this year). But this tea is from older tea trees. This tea is not from above-mentioned group purchase but I think it's quite unique to share.

E - Jing Shan Tea (径山茶), a historical green tea from Zhejiang.

There are a few free samples of other 2011 green teas coming with this set, including Orchid Fair Twig (similar to this one), Yong Xi Huo Qing (similar to this one) and/or your choices.

2. A cute tiny little tin of 2011 Pre-Guyu Xi Hu Long Jing from Mei Jia Wu, Jiu Keng group cultivar, around 15-20g. $4. This is not sold alone and is only available to buyer of other tea. Sold.

I'm not exactly sure of the total weight and it's just a guess. It comes in a cute little tin about the same size as the sample tins Adagio used to have. The tea is Pre-Guyu Grade II, meaning it was made around April 12th. I tried this producer's tea last year and it was pretty good.

3. 2011 Pre-Qingming Xi Hu Long Jing from Mei Jia Wu, Long Jing #43 cultivar, made on March 31, 2011. 50g. $28. Buyer can opt to buy half of the amount. Sold.

This tea is also from above-mentioned group purchase. I haven't tried this producer's tea, but trust the selection standards of the group purchase and believe it's a good tea. The reason I give it up is that I've already got a lot of Xi Hu Long Jing from various sources. It's ok if someone would like to buy any amount between 25g and 50g. If bought at 50, the tea will stay intact in a sealed pack and a tin (the tin is already slightly dented as what often happens in international shipments).

This price is not typical for Xi Hu Long Jing, and shouldn't be used to compare with other Xi Hu Long Jing prices.

Buyer of this tea will get free samples of Xi Hu Long Jing from lifeinteacup.com for comparison purpose.

4. Huang Shan Mao Feng from central producing region, 50g. $12. Sold.

This tea is also from above-mentioned group purchase. Price is not typical for Huang Shan Mao Feng.

I had this producer's tea last year, and thought I liked my other two Huang Shan Mao Feng better (although this tea is still very good). However, this tea has been highly praised by a lot of participants of the group purchase both last year and this year. So I guess the taste preference is very personal. Buyer of this tea will get free samples of three different Huang Shan Mao Feng from lifeinteacup.com for comparison purpose.

5. 1990 Wuyi Yan Cha, variety unspecified, pack of 7g, $2 each. Purchase is limited to 1-3 packs for each buyer at this time. This is a friend's tea of private collection. If you taste this tea and would like more, I can connect you to my friend in China to buy more directly from him.

A free sample of 1994 Phoenix Dan Cong comes with this purchase.

6. 2010 Bulang Zhang San (Zhang Jia San Dui, 章家三队) arbor puerh Sheng. $1 per 10g. The purpose of this sale is to share this tea with people and learn what people think of it. Purchase is limited to 10g -20g for each buyer.

This tea has very low bitterness/astringency and relatively high aroma and sweetness to drink now. It can be a good example of drinkable new sheng (for those with strong stomach). But I personally think it can wait for a few more years to get more enjoyable. It doesn't taste harsh, but definitely has something strong in it that kind of stirs me up (not sure physically or mentally). That being said, whole cakes are available if some people really want it.

The reason why this sample is available now is a tragedy... I once got a mailing agent who packed carelessly. As these cakes are made with traditional stone mills and are not so densely compressed, some cakes were badly crushed during the shipment. I had planned to open this tea in a few years, but now have a few broken cakes to play with.

Buyers please feel free to claim some free stuff here:

1. Some 7g packs of modern green style Tie Guan Yin from various producers and of various grades. I usually don't ask for modern green TGY samples as my stomach doesn't handle them well. But I've accumulated some small packs and hope to send them to some green TGY lover.

2. Some tea flowers (similar to flowers seen in this tea), not much but I can send it in a few 7g small packs to people.

3. "mysterious puerh". There is a 2005 sheng puerh that I think is surprisingly bad (in terms of taste but not in terms of storage or food safety) :-p I won't tell the name of the producer and won't show the wrapper. But I would like some people to either concur with me or disagree with me on how bad it is. If this can promote your interest - it is the worse sheng I've ever had! (Well it's not really stomach-wrenchingly bad. But obviously I haven't tried hard to look for bad sheng to begin with...)

Normally I hate to give things I dislike to people. So anyone who is brave to claim this sample will also get another sample of my favorite tea or a puerh sample of their choice :-D

4. Some samples of Liu Bao tea with CNNP mark numbers. Around 20-30g. I hope someone who likes Liu Bao can take it and also enlighten me why they like Liu Bao. I can drink it, but have never got it why it's supposed to be good...

And of course, buyers please feel free to ask for free samples from lifeinteacup.com

Shipping can be combined with lifeinteacup.com purchase for North American addressees.

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